


His Truest Love

by ladyofrosefire



Category: DC Cinematic Universe, The Sandman (Comics), Wonder Woman (2017)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Character Study, F/M, Parent Death Mention, this fic has been eating at me since Friday so I caved and wrote it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-10 21:31:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11135079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyofrosefire/pseuds/ladyofrosefire
Summary: When he was a child, Steve Trevor made a bargain with Death so that he would never fear to go with her.You do not need to have read the Sandman





	His Truest Love

The day his father dies, Steve Trevor looks right at the black haired woman as she takes his father away. It does not surprise him when she returns and sits beside him, just out of arm’s reach. He knows what she is, and he knows why she is here when he will not die for years yet.

“I want to make a deal.” He says, with all a child’s confidence. “I never want to be afraid to go with you.”

Death smiles at him. “I can’t keep you from feeling fear. What could I do to make myself less scary?”

He considers this, and then sets his chin. “I think if I knew you, I wouldn’t think you were scary at all. So I want to know you before I have to die, too.”

“Are you sure?”

“What’s it gonna cost me?”

Death’s smile is sadder, this time. “Your life, the same as anyone.” She waits for the boy’s nod, and then stands. “We have a deal, then.”

 

Steve Trevor knows Death. He sees her in the city where he grows up, in hospitals, in neighbors, in stray animals that ran into the road at the wrong time. He knows her better still when he becomes a soldier. Every time she comes for someone, and he is there, she looks at him. She offers one of her ancient smiles, and he feels another piece of his heart go to her. He sends them with the lives he takes.

When his plane goes down, he fights it for his life as it drags him beneath the waves. He sees the shape above the water and thinks at first that she has come for him at last. But he wakes and sees a beautiful face, one full of color, surrounded by the light of the sun. 

When he comes to Themyscira, he brings Death with him. 

Diana is life itself. Shining, passionate, full of love and strength. She is everything that she wants the world around her to become, and she is so sure that she can bring an end to war and suffering. 

Steve sees Death out of the corner of his eye and knows the truth. 

 

The pale woman owns almost nothing of his heart in those last few days. He knows her now as well as he knows his own reflection in the mirror, the weight of his gun at his hip and the feeling of the wind whipping past his face as he flies. He thinks that maybe, in Diana, he has finally met someone she cannot touch. 

Death is there when Diana pushes across No Man’s Land, and in Veld as they fight. She stops by each soldier in turn, each civilian they fail to rescue, although there are few of those. It’s with a start that he realizes Death was the one to carry Diana’s cloak back from the trenches. 

He tries to bargain again that night, before the dancing starts. 

“Take me before you take her.” He asks. 

Death fades away into the distance with a sad smile.

He holds Diana close, watches the way her eyes light up at the sight of snow. When he leads her up to the room in Veld’s only inn, he prepares himself to leave and sleep and die the next day. But she turns to him with light and desire and love in her eyes.

She’s so alive it hurts to look at her. Warm beneath his hands, and against his mouth. She holds him to her as though he were not a fragile, fleeting thing, and he almost believes it. 

Steve rides out the next morning with the taste of life on his lips. 

If life clings to Diana, then Death follows in Dr. Maru’s shadow with sorrow in her grey eyes. He thinks of Athena, and Thanatos, and tries to pull some last life-saving piece of information from the doctor. Lovers of Death the both of them, he thinks, and then sees Diana part the crowd. He moves a beat behind the pale woman as Diana reaches for her sword. 

She vanishes as soon as his hand closes on Diana’s wrist. 

Death must be at Veld again, but if she weeps as well, he does not see. Steve shows Diana where to go, and they both follow in her wake. The beating of her wings matches the pounding of his heart. 

At German High Command, he sees her before he sees Diana, and feels fear. But Diana still lives, although the light in her eyes has turned to fever and unshed tears. 

She still lives when he finds her locked in battle with Ares. She must, because death hovers at his shoulder and the watch in his hands ticks like a second heart. So he presses it into Diana’s hands and tells her he loves her and does not kiss her because if he does, he will never leave. 

Steve is not afraid. 

He is not afraid as he cuts down the soldiers between the door and the cockpit. He is not afraid as he takes the pilot’s chair. 

He laughs as the plane climbs higher. 

Death stands at his shoulder.

Steve keeps climbing until the air grows so thin he worries that the gas will not burn. He holds his gun in a steady hand and stares at Death’s reflection in the windshield. 

“You kept your promise.”

“I always do.” 

His life will have meaning because of this.

Steve wishes he could make Diana’s face the last thing he sees. All he can do is remember the way her skin felt, the smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth. He holds that memory as tight as he can.

 _I love you,_ he thinks.

And then he pulls the trigger. 

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr at ask-ladyofrosefire.tumblr.com


End file.
